My Trip to Colombia and the Importance for Our Health to Disconnect

A Video Blog

By Maria T. MejiaFrom TheBody.com

March 5, 2012

I just got back from my country Colombia and had a beautiful spiritual connection with mother nature ... I disconnected from everything!

This is so important for our health! Not only have I been really taking care of my body -- I stopped smoking, started eating organic and very healthy -- but I am also learning to stop and look at the beautiful gift that is nature and connecting to it as one. This was a total spiritual medication for me.

Sometimes as activists we get burned out and we need to stop! And this is not only for activists, it's for everyone. HIV positive or HIV negative, activist or non-activist.

Happiness comes from within, not from external and material things. Some of the most wonderful things in life are for free.

I urge everyone to take care of yourself in every way! Spiritually, mentally and physically -- this is the key to a healthy life and a happy life! We all love material things, but in this journey and process I call life I am learning that having the basics and all of these beautiful things that are free, we can be happy! The rest of the things that come to us are blessings and they are welcomed.

Many of the people I spoke to in this small journey were very happy and they had NOTHING! Or just basics! They had time for everything ... love, work, breakfast, lunch, dinner, living life and they are happy ... always smiling! Not stressed out angry people ... these are my new teachers!

So please stop when you can, and appreciate all of the beauty that surrounds us!

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I am a 37-year-old Colombian female who lives in Miami, Florida. I've been positive for 20 years. Although almost all my life I've been in long-term relationships with HIV-negative men, I am happily married to a woman who is wonderful and caring. We have been together almost three years and she is HIV negative. I have no children but we will look into having! I am an activist, a peer educator, a caregiver. I volunteered for the Red Cross in education for the Hispanic HIV community and also the American community. I was a pre- and post-test counselor. I have spoken in many conferences and done a lot of outreach in the community, especially in the schools for prevention and education. It is part of my everyday life to educate everyone I can on this subject. Being HIV positive is nothing to be ashamed about! We are strong women, and we will take away all the stigmas slowly but we have to open up.

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